Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Sunday Night Dinners: Vegetable Beef Soup

Even though the weather was much downright summer-like here this weekend, I still had a hankering for soup. I love soup - it is probably one of my favorite meals! Especially if it is home-made! So on Sunday I made Vegetable Beef Soup!

Like all recipes, this one started with a trip to a grocery store... and a phone call to my mom. The recipe called for Parsnips. I had no idea what they were - and the grocery store did a terrible job of clearly marking their produce! So I had to call my mom and ask her what the heck they were. And of course, she knew exactly how to describe them - "a white vegetable that looks like a carrot" - thanks, Mom. What would I do without you!

In case you are like me and don't know what parsnips are, here's a photo!

I started by chopping up the parsnips and my other vegetables. As I've said before, I'm a big fan of the 'mise en place' - it makes for a less stressful cooking process!

After all the slicing and dicing, I browned the round steak,

After setting aside the browned steak, I added the carrots, celery, parsnips, onion, and thyme to the Dutch oven and cooked them until they were slightly softened (about 5 min).

Then I added back the beef as well as the beef broth, tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

After bringing that to a boil, I let it simmer for about 10 minutes and then stirred in the Spinach.

I let the soup simmer for an additional 10 minutes and then added the cooked brown rice (made in my rice cooker which is seriously one of the best cooking gadgets I've ever received!)

And voila!

Here's my 1 1/3 cup serving - it was DELICIOUS!!

And the best part? I have meals for the rest of the week!

I highly recommend this recipe. It was delicious and I am sure it will be even better the 2nd time around!

Parsnips are one of my faves. If you ever have leftover parsnips or just want to try them a different way; peel them, slice them up, toss with a little olive oil and salt and roast in the oven for 45 mins to an hour until soft. They get so sweet and yummy that way. Mashed parsnips are also really yummy. Just peel, boil til soft and then mask up with some butter, salt and milk/cream if needed.

Lisa, that soup looks delish! I will definitely make it! I also loved the recipe for the baked parsnips, too, so thanks for sharing that! And to Abby, they are a root vegetable much like a carrot, rutebaga, or potato! Try it, you'll like it!

About Lisa

Hi, I'm Lisa! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm a 30-something living in Minneapolis, MN which is a city I adore. I have many loves but some that top the list are running, reading, traveling and all things French.